NEW YORK, NY.- The FLAG Art Foundation is presenting and I will wear you in my heart of heart, a group exhibition of contemporary paintings and textiles on view May 1-August 14, 2021, on its 9th floor. Centering on a gesture of care, the exhibition explores the myriad ways in which 35 artists evoke tenderness though depictions of lovers and friends, familial exchanges, moments of solitude, and even a cowboy and his pastel pink unicorn. Heart of heart includes recent and new works created for the exhibition that embody the cross-generational resurgence in figuration as a mode of exploring identity, cultural histories, and personal experience.
Heart of heart nods to a line from, and spoken by, Hamlet and addresses that which we hold closest, be it a relationship, a feeling, ones well-being, an object, or a dream. Illustratively, the heart of heart is akin to a castles keep, an innermost stronghold and safeguard from the world. Reggie Burrows Hodges and Jordan Casteel depict shared intimacy between parents and children in large-scale scenes. TM Davy and Jenna Gribbon position viewers as voyeurs, granted fleeting access to an affectionate gesture between friends and/or lovers. Reflective moments are found in paintings by Peter Doig (a lone figure stands outside Lapeyrouse Cemetery in Port of Spain, Trinidad), Danielle McKinney (a woman sits in prayer under a crucifix and portrait of the Virgin Mary), and Ernst Yohji Jaeger (a spider web is suspendedor being spunbetween the fingers of a young man). Joan Semmels frank depiction of her aging body and Jay Lynn Gomezs painting of a polaroid picture of her younger self speak to vulnerability and transformation. Made of materials that typically dress and wrap the body, textiles by Cheryl Pope (needle-punched wool roving on cashmere), Alessandro Teoldi (reconstituted airline blankets), and Billie Zangewa (hand-stitched and collaged silk) connote touch, comfort, and connectivityintrinsic elements of tenderness.
With the understanding that the concept of tenderness is both elastic and individual, the exhibition opens with three artworks: Tajh Rusts If I had a dream, 2021; Anthony Cudahys Us (with Jacobs Ladder, Apocalypse Tree, Lion), 2020; and Lisa Yuskavages Mutualism, 2006. Rusts jewel-toned canvas centers on two sleeping figures: a woman on an emerald couch and a man on a sapphire carpet studded with butterflies. While the figures relationship is opaqueare the lovers, siblings, or just friendstheir hands, which almost touch, create an unmistakable intimacy. Cudahy paints himself and his husband Ian in a life-size towering embrace; connected through a spiral of each others hands, the couple is woven into a patchwork of symbols and imagery borrowed from the medieval Bayeux and Apocalypse Tapestries, as well as references to Helen Frankenthalers explosive Jacobs Ladder, 1957. By contrast, Yuskavages small-scale oil painting features two nymph-like female figures piggybacking in a Candyland-like landscapeboth are naked but for a single black Mary Jane shoe. Yuskavages intertwined characters are sexual and sexualized, playful, and possibly parasitic. Partially obscured by branches and greenery, the intentions on their flushed-faces are impossible to discern.
Continuing through two adjoining galleries, over 30 artworks of varied subject matters and formal affinities are installed to spark dialogues that are, by turns, funny, heartbreaking, erotic, nostalgic, empathetic, etc. Cumulatively, the works in heart of heart illustrate the simple beauty of everyday moments, intimacy, and connection.